Wow, Wuk Lamat is really single-handedly ruining the DT story...

[PaleYonder]

I really can't believe the difference the cat's presence or absence makes.
So I stayed away from all new content for a while, did only some slow gathering/crafting catch-up in old zones, levelled Picto, and now finally started the optional level 100 stuff, expert dungeons and Arcadion. After the MSQ I just had no motivation to even enter the new zones anymore, even though I'd been looking forward to Solution 9 ever since I saw the first promo image. The bad MSQ experience just overshadowed it all. And I thought of the Arcadion, sure it looks nice but so does Solution 9, and I'm just done, and tournament arcs aren't interesting enough for me to get into this now; to me it can be fun if it's made entertaining enough, bonus points for being very anime, but it's "take it or leave it", and after this, I thought I'll leave it.

But now that I'm getting into this and there's no cat princess doing her black hole act, and it's just me in a new situation, it's such a relief. I can play as myself again! My character has something to do again and is the one that interacts with the NPCs! It doesn't even matter that it's just about a frivolous tournament and doesn't mean anything on any grander scale, I'm given something to do as myself, and I'm given dialogue options that express different attitudes to the soul thing, and I get to be critical of NPCs as much as I want. With this bare minimum, I'm already having so much better a time, it's like night and day.
The Dawntrail MSQ has endless problems from the ground up and I stand by that, but I think without Wuk Lamat and all the issues she brings, it might have been at least a tolerable experience.

[Wired-Lain]

I really can't believe the difference the cat's presence or absence makes.
So I stayed away from all new content for a while, did only some slow gathering/crafting catch-up in old zones, levelled Picto, and now finally started the optional level 100 stuff, expert dungeons and Arcadion. After the MSQ I just had no motivation to even enter the new zones anymore, even though I'd been looking forward to Solution 9 ever since I saw the first promo image. The bad MSQ experience just overshadowed it all. And I thought of the Arcadion, sure it looks nice but so does Solution 9, and I'm just done, and tournament arcs aren't interesting enough for me to get into this now; to me it can be fun if it's made entertaining enough, bonus points for being very anime, but it's "take it or leave it", and after this, I thought I'll leave it.

But now that I'm getting into this and there's no cat princess doing her black hole act, and it's just me in a new situation, it's such a relief. I can play as myself again! My character has something to do again and is the one that interacts with the NPCs! It doesn't even matter that it's just about a frivolous tournament and doesn't mean anything on any grander scale, I'm given something to do as myself, and I'm given dialogue options that express different attitudes to the soul thing, and I get to be critical of NPCs as much as I want. With this bare minimum, I'm already having so much better a time, it's like night and day.
The Dawntrail MSQ has endless problems from the ground up and I stand by that, but I think without Wuk Lamat and all the issues she brings, it might have been at least a tolerable experience.

I'm loving Arcadion but I keep fearing the arrival of Wuk Lamat barging in at any moment because the MSQ trained me to expect her around every corner lmao

[lolnotacat]

I'm loving Arcadion but I keep fearing the arrival of Wuk Lamat barging in at any moment because the MSQ trained me to expect her around every corner lmao

If we're lucky, Wuk will barge in right as Eutrope tries to steal our soul and she'll steal Wuk's soul instead. That's a catgirl trade I'd be more than happy to make.

[Voidmage]

I really can't believe the difference the cat's presence or absence makes.
So I stayed away from all new content for a while, did only some slow gathering/crafting catch-up in old zones, levelled Picto, and now finally started the optional level 100 stuff, expert dungeons and Arcadion. After the MSQ I just had no motivation to even enter the new zones anymore, even though I'd been looking forward to Solution 9 ever since I saw the first promo image. The bad MSQ experience just overshadowed it all. And I thought of the Arcadion, sure it looks nice but so does Solution 9, and I'm just done, and tournament arcs aren't interesting enough for me to get into this now; to me it can be fun if it's made entertaining enough, bonus points for being very anime, but it's "take it or leave it", and after this, I thought I'll leave it.

But now that I'm getting into this and there's no cat princess doing her black hole act, and it's just me in a new situation, it's such a relief. I can play as myself again! My character has something to do again and is the one that interacts with the NPCs! It doesn't even matter that it's just about a frivolous tournament and doesn't mean anything on any grander scale, I'm given something to do as myself, and I'm given dialogue options that express different attitudes to the soul thing, and I get to be critical of NPCs as much as I want. With this bare minimum, I'm already having so much better a time, it's like night and day.
The Dawntrail MSQ has endless problems from the ground up and I stand by that, but I think without Wuk Lamat and all the issues she brings, it might have been at least a tolerable experience.

The Raid Story and the sidequests really show how important it is to involve the player character in an MMORPG.

The idea of Wuk Lamat is fine. Even the character archetype is fine.
It is even ok to have a character more in the spotlight in a story but they overdid it and went against the narrative style the game had till now.

[fioravictorine]

I'll repost this nightmarish image cos all of us live in fear of the Wuk

[Carin-Eri]

I've said this before, elsewhere, but am going to repeat here since it's just as relevant to to this thread:

I'll admit I didn't really overthink her presence for the vast majority of the MSQ. However, if there was one moment I did actually wish she could've been put in the back seat for once it was the final Trial. The dialogue didn't help - it was pretty hypocritical for the dialogue at the start of said trial to identify us as "the single greatest threat" only to contradict that by having Wuk Lamat appear midway and present us with a unnecessary 'here I come to save the day!' moment.

To be honest, it felt like they tried to what they did with Zenos in Ultima Thule (bursting through a barrier to come to our aid in our moment of need) which made sense in that context; we were literally alone and, like it or not, needed Zenos. But the writers missed the point in the Queen Eternal fight; the scenario with Zenos worked exactly because we were alone Vs an overwhelming foe which wasn't the case VS Queen Eternal. Nothing in the scenario suggested we were losing or were overwhelmed and we certainly weren't alone thanks to the awesomeness of Azem's crystal, which means Wuk Lamat's appearance was unnecessary and, sadly, did take the wind out of the sails of the fight.
Personally, I would have preferred something akin to the Endsinger 'Light the Way' moment, which would've kept Wuk Lamat somewhat relevant (and made the others less useless) without having her steal the spotlight.

And it's a pity it played out that way, because it overshadowed a great trial with absolutely epic music.

[Voidmage]

Personally, I would have preferred something akin to the Endsinger 'Light the Way' moment, which would've kept Wuk Lamat somewhat relevant (and made the others less useless) without having her steal the spotlight.

And it's a pity it played out that way, because it overshadowed a great trial with absolutely epic music.

In my opinion even that would not have been needed.

It would have been completely fine to hive that moment to the WoL alone.
The entire expansion we were only in the background. One trial for us to show „Yeah, gloves are off now. I take it from here“ would have been ok.

Wuk Lamat could have her time after that with Sphene.

Endsinger was good for what it was like you said. I don‘t see the need to try to replicate that again.

I agree with you on all other points.

[TheDustyOne]

I'll repost this nightmarish image cos all of us live in fear of the Wuk

Thanks, I hate it.

[Carin-Eri]

In my opinion even that would not have been needed.

It would have been completely fine to hive that moment to the WoL alone.
The entire expansion we were only in the background. One trial for us to show „Yeah, gloves are off now. I take it from here“ would have been ok.

Wuk Lamat could have her time after that with Sphene.

Endsinger was good for what it was like you said. I don‘t see the need to try to replicate that again.

I agree with you on all other points.

Yeah, you're right. And again, I do feel that her appearance completely undermined the importance the dialogue itself placed on us at the start of the trial.

[PaleYonder]

The Raid Story and the sidequests really show how important it is to involve the player character in an MMORPG.

The idea of Wuk Lamat is fine. Even the character archetype is fine.
It is even ok to have a character more in the spotlight in a story but they overdid it and went against the narrative style the game had till now.

Yeah, that's exactly it. I liked her well enough in the patch lead-up before I knew what this would turn into.
Now just personal taste-wise, the stereotypical brash shounen protagonist type characters tend to have a harder time winning me over and are rarely my favourites. In our new party I was always going to prefer e.g. the more subtle, sullen Erenville with his dry humour to her, but I didn't mind her at first. I also liked Yda back when she was Yda, and figured Wuk Lamat would be fine, get some development, and most importantly be just one of several characters, as in other expansions, and my character would have his usual role.
What we got instead was a surprise indeed.